A positive piece of information.

This article in Education Week about the decrease of the drop out rate is something we don't hear every day. A positive piece of journalism. The talk about the decline in the student drop-out rate for the last four years. They also outline some really cool and innovative ways that some of the worst school districts are using to recapture students who have already dropped out. The author, Sarah D. Sparks talks about how some of the previously notorious Drop-out Factories are turning around at a good rate. I do worry that they may be cutting corners but the article doesn't talk about how well these students are doing compared with other standards. I am glad to see that something is being done in education to help these students, who normally would slip through the cracks.

He got part of it right.

Bill Gates has suddenly become an educational expert. This article on edweek.org talks about Bill's view on educational reform. I think this is another example of business leaders getting it wrong. He talks about merit pay and the effects of compensation on teacher quality. As we are just now learning from Alfie Kohn, Rewards and Punishments are two sides of the same coin. As this applies to teachers, Bill would manipulate teachers into being better by paying them to succeed. I know I have talked about this before but what these business leaders don't realize is that unlike them many, many people are not motivated by money. And as the research, noted in this article and by Mr. Kohn, shows, that this does not work. The intrinsic drive of most teachers is to affect change in their students lives. I propose that if you make sure that teachers don't have to worry about their lives or the lives of their students outside of the classroom by making sure both get the resources they deserve, we will see great improvement in the educational system. I do think that Bill got part if right when he said that making short term, one-time cuts will hurt students academically. So let us now focus on a long term solution that will benefit everyone.

Testing varies and a move towards international standards

This article in the recent Education Week shows how assessments vary from state to state and country to country. It talks about how each state sets standards differently and reports to the federal government achievement based on these standards. The problem with that is that then students can't always compete on an international level. As the world shrinks our students need to know how they compare to other students around the world. The Common Core Standards is the first step to address this issue but they are not really assessing the achievements of the students, only setting goals. I was pleased to see Oregon mentioned as one of the states that where taking the first step to using global standards. For years I have heard that Oregon leads the nation in learning but recently have noted that by nation we are lacking. I hope that by using the benchmarks listed in this article we can prepare our students to compete on a global level.

New Haven Conn. Setting and Example for the Country.

This article online at Edweek.com illustrates what a community can do if it puts it's students first. They have set up a program to send every student who is eligible to college. They have realized that the future of their town depends on it. They talk about how this program will bring people to their town and I think it will also bring business to town that will create jobs. They talk about the long term affect of having students come back and be productive members of the community.

There where a few questions I had that the article didn't answer. How are they going to pay for it? How are they going to get these students to move back after they complete college? They also talked about it providing around $2,500 per student per year and I wonder what the tuition for a public university in Connecticut is?

As we all know one of the biggest barriers to success for a college graduate is the heavy debt that comes with it. This is a great step forward in the fight against public debt. I hope they can be a model for the future and I know that they will have many bright minds moving to their town who normally would not be thinking about their children going to college because of the cost.

Education Week: Digital Directions

Last week I talked about technology and its use as a tool in the classroom. This article in Education Week's Digital Directions outlines how this could become less expensive and easier to implement. Some schools are switching to Freeware or Shareware in order to save money. They don't want to mess with Microsofts licensing or Apples high prices. I remember when computers first came to the classroom. Apple took a chance and made them available in many classrooms during the 1980's. It might be one of the reasons that I still prefer them today. The article talks about using a open source operating system and applications in order to keep cost down. I would think that Microsoft and Apple would want to keep people using their products and offer their tools to students for a greatly reduced price in order to get them "hooked". This would be advertising to minors that would be looked on in a positive light. Most widely used applications such as Word and Excel are becoming obsolete specially when you consider what is available on the web for free. I do have some reservations about what these free applications might cost us in the long run.